5 Steps to Install macOS Sierra in VirtualBox on Windows 10

I was pretty unsure myself whether I would want to jump onto a Mac ever since I first googled Sesame Street when I was like 6 years old (don’t ask me why) on my computer which ran on Microsoft’s Windows.

Since then, it took me awhile to get used to Apple’s macOS and the way I did it was rather than buying the Mac itself I tried it out on my Windows PC.

So, if you want to try Apple’s macOS on your Windows 10 too, (which I’m assuming you have already upgraded, if not you can follow this shit-easy guide on 9 Ways to Get Windows 10 for Free) here’s how you can install macOS Sierra Final in VirtualBox on Windows 10. 🙂

So what’s new on macOS Sierra 10.12 Final?

The all-new macOS Sierra 10.12 Final by Apple is the latest version of Mac system software right now (updated March 2017) and it brings with it a whole lot of new tweaks and changes that you might like.

Here’s a video on the new macOS Sierra 10.12 Final. 🙂

Siri just doesn’t get enough of you does she? 😉

Well, literally every geek in the Apple-cult has been dying to have Siri on their Macs (it’s the only substitute for their single lives) and it has been one of the main talking points of the new macOS Sierra 10.12 alongside all the other new additions.

meet VirtualBox

VirtualBox is one tiny, powerful dude, and it is capable of installing macOS onto your Windows 10 computer as an app.

It works like a charm with Sierra, but before you get onto the guide, there are three little requirements that your Windows 10 computer is going to need in order for you to install the macOS onto your computer. 🙂

The minimum requirements that you are going to need are:

• a 64-Bit Computer

• at least 4GB RAM

• a Dual-Core processor

Got all of that? Splendid! Once your have got that out of the way, you can now proceed to install macOS Sierra in VirtualBox on Windows 10.

Here are the links to the downloads that you’ll be needing to install macOS Sierra onto your VirtualBox successfully. 🙂

Now I know what you’re thinking, “Which one of the two macOS Sierra 10.12 Final download links should I download from?”

The reason why I have included two Google Drive download links for you is that, the (One Full) download link has the entire macOS Sierra 10.12 Final file from Apple as one 5.3GB file. So if you are alright with letting your computer run all night to download the 5GB file then you can go for this

The (5 of 5) download link has the entire macOS Sierra 10.12 Final file as 5 separate 1GB files, so if your internet connection is pretty weak or if you just simply want to take your time and download one by one then you can go for this. 🙂

Once, you are done with the download ‘stuff’, you can now go on with the 5 quick and simple steps below.

How to Install macOS Sierra in VirtualBox on Windows 10: 5 Steps

1. Extract the Image File with Winrar or 7zip.

Step 1: The first thing that you should do is go ahead and install WinRAR. (I have included the latest (March 2018) link for WinRAR for you)

Step 2: Once you have done that, right click on the macOS 10.12 Sierra file that you’d downloaded.

Step 3: Then select Extract Here.

Like this.

2. Install VirtualBox

Step 1: Download the latest version of VirtualBox (I have included the latest (June 2018) link for VirtualBox for you above)

Step 2: It’s pretty easy to install VirtualBox. Just keep clicking Next and then Finished and you’re good to go.

3. Create New Virtual Machine

Step 1: Now you have to create your new Virtual Machine. So what you have to do is, open the VirtualBox you’ve just downloaded.

Step 2: Next click on New which you can see to your upper left-hand side.

Step 3: Sweet! Now all you have to do is follow on by adding each of the below details into each of the fields. 🙂

Name: macOS 10.12 Sierra

Type: Mac OS X

Version: Mac OS X 10.11 El Capitan (64 bit) or 10.12 Sierra

Memory size is 4 GB ( 70% of your Ram )

Virtual disk file: macOS 10.12 Sierra.vmdk

4. Edit Your Virtual Machine

Step 1: Once you have created your Virtual Machine, now it’s time to edit it. So first tap on Settings.

Step 2: Then, you should be able to see General to your right hand side, so put everything into default there.

Step 3: After that, under General you should be able to see System. Click that.

Step 4: You’re doing a great job so far! Alright, from here onwards, it’s pretty shit easy. You just have to follow what I selected for each of the fields based on the pictures below. 🙂

CPU: Select 2 CPU (you can choose more tha n2 if you want but it is entirely according to your CPU) and then enable PAE/NX

System: Now you have to enable EFI and then disable Floppy. Next make sure you choose the Chipset as IHC9 (you can also choose PIIX3)

Graphics: Set your Video Memory to 128MB

Storage: Finally, choose your macOS 10.12 Sierra.vmdk and make sure that under Attributes, you set the Hard Disk to SATA Port 0. Once done, click OK.

Note

Now close your VirtualBox. Then should you proceed with the next step.

5. Add Code to VirtualBox with Command Prompt (cmd)

Before you add the code onto VirtualBox with your Command Prompt, you have a few little changes that you have to make to make things easier for you.

Step 1: Replace the phrase “Your VM Name” in the code (below) with your own virtual machine name which you can find in General, then under Basic. It’s best if you copy the code below into your Notepad and thenreplace the areas where it says “Your VM Name” with your own virtual machine name before moving on the next step.

I know the solution for your problems, you didn´t chose the vmdk-file…
under storage, right next where you choose the hard disk you have to click on the little button and choose the vmdk-file you unpacked.

The “macOS 10.12 Sierra.vmdk” is prepared to be bootable, or it is just the .dmg of macOS Sierra 10.12 from app store?
I ask you this, because most of the solutions that I found on the web, their one of steps was making bootable first by an Apple computer which already has Mac.

Make sure to try the steps again so that you can be sure that it is not a mistake with the way you entered each of the options in (Step 3)

If the problem persists, then what you can do is follow this guide that I’ve attached below for you until I create a full collection of solutions to problems that users might encounter when going through this (It’ll be up and ready within a few days or so).

Thanks for the guide.
I’ve just tried running the macOS through virtual box and I get the “geeky code” but it loops around after about 3 minutes of text scrolling through the screen.
Any ideas on where I went wrong?

Hi Jake,
Thanks for the detailed guide.
The thing is I am getting a error when I start the macOS 10.12 Sierra. Its VitualBox Error “A critical error has occurred while running the virtual machine and the machine execution has been stopped”
I don’t know why I’m getting this error
Can you help me out?
I’m new to this.
Thanks in advance 🙂

Hello,
Mine did the thing where the geeky code kept going in a loop for a very long time so I entered in the code after I exited VB this time and now when I try to start it gives me an error message saying “Failed to open a session for the virtual machine macOS 10.12 Sierra” and when I looked at the details, it says “Configuration error: Querying “DeviceKey” as a string failed (VERR_CFGM_NOT_ENOUGH_SPACE).

I was following your guide here and ran into an issue running the vboxmanage codes. Your sction for copy/paste has the codes all garbles – spaces where there should be none, missing “/”, etc. When compared with your cmd output, you can see what the differences are; however, after editing the code to match your cmd screenshot – I am getting errors such as
VBoxManage.exe: error: Invalid parameter ‘VBoxInternal/Devices/efi/0/Config/DmiSystemProduct’

I understand what we are trying to accomplish, but unfortunately I don’t know enough about the internals of VBox to fix the command-lines appropriately here. If you do, please be so kind as to enlighten.

Nevermind – I found my error. The correct lines in your area above should be changed to reflect what they actually should be, versus the garbled commands that are showing. Perhaps it’s my browser, in which case, I apologize for questioning things. I am not using IE, Edge, Chrome, Opera, Safari. So it’s possible it is my fault.

The virtual machine ‘macOS 10.12 Sierra’ has terminated unexpectedly during startup with exit code 1 (0x1). More details may be available in ‘C:\Users\ijat\VirtualBox VMs\macOS 10.12 Sierra\Logs\VBoxHardening.log’.

Other than exiting VirtualBox before adding the codes and enabling Virtualization in your BIOS (both of which I’m sure you’ve already done) you can make sure that the details that you have entered into your VirtualBox are correct.

A “Previous shutdown cause: 3” could be solved as I’ve had readers who said that maybe the chipset should be PII* to get system to work. If your system doesn’t work, then you can try to change chipset to PII*.

I still keep get the Guru Meditation error “A critical error has occurred while running the virtual machine and the machine execution has been stopped”. I have carefully checked all settings as well as the command syntax and re-entered all the commands and even tried a fresh VM. The only progress I have made is this text is new:

The problem could probably be with your Virtual Machine name. Which means it could be either that you didn’t rename the VirtualBox code OR it could also be that the names (the one in the code and the one which is your virtual machine) that you entered are not the same.

You can double check that, but I’m guessing you already have done that.

So what I suggest for now is you can ask the guys over at Stack Overflow. It’s simple and besides that’s where I normally ask if I encounter any technical problems such as yours. 🙂

But what I can assure you is that I’ll definitely look into your problem personally. I’ll update you once I find the solution, until then you can also try and go for VMWare.

Was there ever a known fix for this issue! I’m having the same issue. Virtualization is turned on in the bios. Even tried making a completely different VM but that didn’t help. Still getting the can’t find a registed device..

I had the same issue. I fixed this by installing the older version of VirtualBox 5.1.22. I originally had installed version 5.2.0 but I kept getting the same error “VBoxManage.exe: error: Could not find a registered machine named”. I switched to 5.1.22 and now I’m looking at the Apple logo. 😀 Hope that helps.https://www.virtualbox.org/wiki/Download_Old_Builds_5_1

I have gotten through every step easily (thanks for that by the way. Very easy to understand) However I am having issues at the very start of the cmd command. Basically I would imagine it has to do with the fact that I have Virtual Box installed on my D drive – My 1TB internal HDD, while most of my apps and Windows are located in my C Drive (a small 128 GB SSD) I attempted the code exactly as you stated originally (cd “D:\Program Files (x86) 2.0\VirtualBox\”) but it failed with the error of “The system cannot find the path specified.” I realized it must be because it would be actually located at the address “D:\Program Files (x86) 2.0\VirtualBox\” however, when I update the command it gives the same command.. Any ideas?

It mostly likely could be the location of the drive indeed. I will definitely keep looking into your problem and I will see what I can do but whilst you’re at it you can try to double check that you’ve entered the right details into your VirtualBox (especially your VM name and the code) and making sure to exit VirtualBox before entering the code.

Other than that if you find that all is correct, then what I might suggest for now is asking the guys over at Stack Overflow. It’s simple and besides that’s where I normally ask if I encounter any technical problems such as yours (annnd you can get more heads thinking of a solution to your problem haha). 🙂

But what I can assure you is that, again, I’ll definitely look into your problem personally. I’ll update you once I find the solution, until then you can also try and go for VMWare.

I know this is from a few months ago, but you have to change the drive first….
in command prompt, type: D: OR cd /D d:\program files……
then follow the same steps. Without doing this, it is still trying to run the commands on your C: drive.

Hello,
After setting it up, it shows in system information that serial number is 0.
And because of that, i cant log into some of the apple services such as Imessage and facetime.
Do you have a solution of how to get a serial number on my virtual machine.
Please reply.

Make sure that you have followed each of the steps correctly (especially the part where you exit your VirtualBox before entering in your code) and also make sure that your VirtualBox is on the latest version which is VirtualBox 5.1.22.

Just double check that, but if the problem still persists then what you can do is check your system.

This method at times does not really work on systems which have AMD.

Your final resort is that you can try VMWare which is just as great as VirtualBox. I’ll be writing an article on that soon.

It is working like a charm thank you! For all you people having problems, the command line must be the cause of it. Just make sure that they are being typed correctly, as there is no feedback on input. Make sure that VirtualBox is actually closed, and carefully check the VM’s name and the commands.

Msenden’s comment above saved my life. I have virtual box installed on my 3rd drive; went through all the steps, and the commands on the command line just kept cycling through over and over again.

Finally read through all the comments, and noticed that Msenden’s instructions on what to type on the command line had a different quote symbol; changed that and deleted the space on the original command posted on the site, and now I’m running sierra on my win10 machine! Thanks for the article and thanks to those who posted their resolution on the comments!

Sorry for the wasted space. I should have been more patient. After I shut down the VM the updates installed without a hitch. But I can verify 100% these instructions ROCK! This works like a champ! Much appreciated!

I ran through the instructions but did not shut down VirtualBox the first time through. It did not work. I tried to close and running step 4 again. It did not work. I tried deleting everything and following the instructions perfectly. It did not work. I tried running the command from the comments because someone mentioned that one of the characters in the article was bad. It did not work.

Then I renamed the instance to macOS Sierra and ran the script from the comments. IT WORKED!

I’m not sure if VirtualBox stores the variables if you use the same machine name or maybe it didn’t like the . in the name or maybe it just hates me because of my awesome fantasy Football team name but the rename was the thing that kicked it off for me (pun intended).

Thank you very much for this guide, I followed it and everything works like a charm!

On little specificity that happened to me (if it happens to someone else):

– I have several hard drives. System is installed on C: and softwares on G:
– When running CommandPrompt.exe from C:, I could not run the list of codes; I had to start the CommandPrompt from the G: disk.

I don’t know why it did that, but if someone is running into the same kind of trouble, the solution is simply to start the CommandPrompt.exe from the disk where the software is.

Hi Jake, im over my google drive limit and had to download 5 individual rar files. Do I open them and add them in virtualbox individually and in any order or do I need to combine them first before or after opening them then add to virtualbox. Cheers Rob.

Hello Jake
Thank you for your great job,ive installed macOs sierra couple month ago and it work perfectly.
I just uptande my iphone to ios 11.0.0 and when i try connect on virtual box (macOs sierra) it didnt apear any conection…becouse developing will know only ios 10.0,is it possibile to upgdate the mac os sierra on virtaual box?
THANK YOU

Hi Jake,
I downloaded VB and Sierra from the links you provided, but in the setup of VB it only allowed me to choose Snow Leopard 32-bit. I have a 64-bit PC running Windows 10. Any idea why this is or how I can fix it?

Hi, I am stuck in the coding. After you said, you will see some geeky coding just let it sit and then you will be at Sierra instruction part. The geeky coding up sits and I am not able to get to the Sierra instruction part. Please help.

If you are having issues, use the commands presented by Asad while they are still available. All the others have issues with spacing and slashes. After correcting all those issues, I was able to get passed the not enough space error seen above and plenty of other issues.

Just for anyone that gets stuck in the boot up loop (with the geeky code)… Like Jake said, the simple fix is to make sure you’ve exited Virtualbox before running the VBoxManage commands (the virtualbox code)

Hi Jake,
I’m getting this error: Error allocating 0x800 pages at 0x0000000002400000 alloc type 2
Error loading kernel cache (0x9)
(This after looping a lot of time each time)
I did everything as is well detailed, the cmd commands after closing the VirtualBox but I’m not able to run the machine.

Hi Jake.
I just installed following your tutorial. It is running good and I thank you very much. I have one question. I would like to change the resolution of the screen and I only have one choice 1024 X 768. Is it possible to have more choices and how I do that?
I also have problem with my microphone. It is a combo headset/micro. I can ear the sounds from the headset, but The machine does not recognize the micro so I cannot talk to IRIS. How I can fix it.
Thank you for your help.
Michel

Works on Linux too. Just change the “VirtualBox Code” part a bit: from “VboxManage.exe” to “vboxmanage” (lower case, no “exe” file extension). Basically it’ll work on every system that is able to run VirtualBox. The commands needed might look a little different (like the example above), but other than that, it’s all the same.

Yeah… this guide has been floating around for some time now, being posted by different authors. But no one can answer how to change the screen resolution in macOS from the 1024×768. I have tried just about all the commands you can find floating around as possible solution. It just won’t budge. It may be specific to 5.2.x vbox and 10.12 sierra. I haven’t tested with all possible combinations, and according to official vbox forums the virtualization software is optimized for running macOS on guests on macOS hosts. So it may be worth it to look up vmware and see if that plays more nicely with this vmdk. Also note that this vmdk file is basically like a brain transplant off of a macOS host machine originally, that’s why you have to run the vbox manage command lines (with the misspelled “seword” instead of sword, and you have to keep the typo to make the damn thing boot). So anyways… i will stop rambling now. Good luck y’all!

thanks for the most painless how-to i’ve encountered in a while. and i even did it on mac rather than windows. If anyone else tries the same. You find the
VBoxManage
program for the setextradata calls in this directory. At least on High Sierra
/Applications/VirtualBox.app/Contents/MacOS

You are a legend mate…
First I did it and it didn’t work…coz I introduced a little concoctions of my own and than I deleted everything and redid it following ever instruction as per. And it worked like a charm.

Thanks for the tutorial. Looks like most people having issues because its not mentioned in the tutorial to close the virtual box before entering the code in command prompt. If you can add it in the notes sections it would be great.

I followed all the steps mentioned but when I launched the VM I am greeted with black screen (not CLI screen), its just black screen where it shows nothing. I waited for more than 30 minutes and nothing happened.

I had the same problem with “>Shell” being written after boot. The problem was that my VM was booting from the Optical drive, and I hadn’t selected any iso ( or other image file ) to boot from. I ended up using the vmdk version ( and booting from the hard drive ). You can download the vmdk file (macOS Sierra 10.12 (One Full) LINK from the top of the page ) as a hard drive in your VM in the Settings/Storage section. After that just start the VM ( make sure it boots from hard disk ) and Sierra should start correctly ( up until the WELCOME page at least )

I’m having problem with the installation, i followed the tutorial step by step even i read too many times to be sure im on the right way. Finally when get to the end, when i try to run the VM appear the black screen with the geek code loading the system and for 2 seconds appear a black mouse and restart. everytime the same.

This is cool and it works, but it’s so slow that it’s unusable. And I’m running the VM with an i7, two cores, and 8GB RAM. Plus sound is messed up… I get random chirps instead of the expected audio stream.

This is cool and it works great! and you’re doing a great job.
Just one problem, I canot connect to the internet via ethernet connection.
I am running MacOS High Sierre 10.12 with VirtualBox Version 5.2.14 r123301 (Qt5.6.2).
Btw i doing this just for fun, I have a macbook.

Hey, I got the sierra running on my VM, but when I tried to install xcode it says i need macOS version 10.13.2 in order to install it. IS there a way that I can upgrade my os from my vm? or do you have another dropbox file that I can download with the latest os?

Hi, thank you very much for this guide, everything works fine, except for the screen size, mine is full hd but the mac os looks in 1024 x 768 is there any way around this? thanks in advance for your help

I suffered the same problem but manged to fix it. I dont know which was the exact problem but in the end I typed in the command by my self:
VBoxManage setextradata “Your VM Name” VBoxInternal2/EfiGraphicsResolution “1920×1200″

The difference from just coping it is that the character for ” and x are different if you type them in by yourself. I think this is a problem in this comment section.

Hi Jake. I did the steps exactly as you’ve instructed. I also checked the bios and virtualization is already enabled. I made sure I used the correct VM name and I ran the codes in CMD after I closed virtualbox. But I still have the same problem. It gets stuck on that shell thing.